The Social Enterprise Development Series

Supports to Encourage Low-income Families (SELF)

Presents

The Social Enterprise Development Series

By

CauseImpact

Sponsored by

The Butler County Family & Children First Council

This workshop series is offered to leaders, Board members and senior managers at nonprofit organizations who wish to develop new ventures or expand existing earned-revenue operations.

Through this series of hands-on workshops, you will learn how to develop ideas to help your organization generate unrestricted revenue and amplify your mission results. You’ll work on your own ideas and unique experiences, elbow to elbow with your peers. Our instructors have decades of experience helping organizations like yours transition to more sustainable models through innovation and entrepreneurship.

Want to learn more about these classes and what social enterprise is all about? Join us on July 25 as we explore innovative ways to generate new revenue, increase mission impact, and improve services to the community. Click here for more information!

Who will buy? This may be the single most important question you ask about your Social Enterprise idea. Until you have a customer, you don’t have a business. Until you have enough customers, paying enough to consistently produce a profit, you don’t have a success. Where will you find them?

Come and learn how to start your quest to understand the market for your product or service. You’ll learn how to approach the question of “Who?” We’ll connect you with resources you can use to learn more about what your potential customers want, need, and aspire to. We’ll provide tools and templates you can use to start your research and build your understanding of what it will take to turn interested strangers into paying customers.

What is it worth? How much should I charge for my product or service? This can be a difficult, confusing question, but it doesn’t have to be.

Join us for a deeper dive into the complexities (and simplicities) of pricing. Learn the 13 main strategies for setting prices – and why being the Low Price Leader is rarely a winning strategy. We’ll help you think through how to select the best strategy, and how to make it work for you.

People want to see “The Numbers”. What does that really mean? How can I project what will happen in the future when I haven’t even started the business yet? How do I get started?

Thrills! Excitement! Anticipation! Spreadsheets!

Most people would have a hard time using all four of those words in a sentence, but putting together financial projections doesn’t have to be boring. It can actually be a lot of fun, because it can reveal a clear picture of how your new business will operate, and what it will take to make it sustainable.

Bring your laptop and join us for a hands-on, informative workshop that’s all about running the numbers and figuring out what they really mean. We’ll help you test your assumptions, calculate your breakeven point, and gain insight into your margins and profit potential. You’ll see how to model growth, and to figure out how much funding you’ll need to get off to a successful start.

How do I get people to buy? How do I develop repeat customers? How can I grow my sales?

We may think we have the greatest product or service ever devised by the mind of man, delivered by the most wonderful people since Shirley Temple and Mother Teresa, and making a difference in the most important social work on the planet. This still doesn’t guarantee sales!

Join us for a fun, fast-paced introduction to better selling. Learn how to develop customer relationships, and how to clearly present the value of your product or service in a way that your customers will understand and appreciate. We’ll talk about types of selling environments (direct vs. indirect, Business-to-consumer vs. business-to-business), different types of sales channels, setting up a basic sales process (no matter how you’re reaching the customer), prospecting, understanding what motivates your customer, developing long-term customer value, and much more.

Now what? I’ve done my market research, I’ve figured out my pricing strategy, I’ve developed my financial projections, and I’ve figured out my sales approach. How do I put all of this together into a coherent business plan?

Good question! The answer may depend on how you intend to use your business plan.

This full-day workshop is focused on the nuts and bolts of enterprise planning for nonprofit leaders, with special emphasis on identifying fundamental business plan components and identifying gaps/areas for further development. We’ll give you an overview of the process and help you focus on the purpose(s) of your plan; to support the launch and implementation of your idea, to help you secure funding, to communicate your story to key stakeholders, or all of the above.